Indian Panel Urged To Frame Report in Context of Goals

Washington--Setting in motion the most comprehensive examination of
Native American schooling in more than 20 years, members of an
Education Department task force began last week the "monumental task"
of determining how to restructure America's educational system to meet
the needs of Indian children.

After swearing in members of the Indian Nations at Risk Task Force,
Secretary of Education Lauro F. Cavazos charged the 15-member panel
with completing its yearlong study within the context of the six
national goals for education hammered out by President Bush and the
nation's governors.

"Let the goals guide your thinking," said Secretary Cavazos, who has
envisioned the group's final report as a document comparable in impact
to the 1983 commission report A Nation At Risk.

William G. Demmert Jr., the Alaska commissioner of education and a
co-chairman of the task force, described the panel's goal as a "short,
well-thought-out, and highly charged report that everyone will
read."

During their three-day meeting here, the task-force members agreed
on an agenda that will include site visits to Indian lands and schools,
an extensive review of existing literature, and a series of regional
hearings.

Mr. Cavazos told panel members that their mission was an essential
component of the coordinated effort by the Education Department and the
Interior Department's Bureau of Indian Affairs to improve educational
opportunities for American Indians and Alaska Natives.

He said the panel's findings also could serve as a framework for
discussions at a White House conference on Indian education, which
President Bush is expected to convene by September 1991.

Ensuring Survival

Many of the Native American leaders on the panel stressed that
education--and the economic security it fosters--is essential to
ensuring a future for Indian society.

Joseph H. Ely, tribal chairman of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe of
Nevada, said that his personal goal as a task-force member is "to
ensure the survival of Indian people."

"Education," he said, "is really going to be the focal point of our
survival."

While the task force will concentrate on developing strategies to
aid Native American students in meeting the President's education
goals, it will also work within a set of "guiding principles" adopted
at the meeting.

The principles focus heavily on the nation's responsibility to
"preserve and protect" native cultures.

"Government and other institutions of the dominant culture must
change historical practices and relationships that have failed to
enable American Indians [and] Alaska Na8tive communities to sustain
native cultures," the statement of principles maintains.

It also emphasizes that schools must cooperate with Native American
parents and leaders to "affirm and restore the cultural heritage of
indigenous peoples, through the teaching of native cultures and
languages."

While the task force is charged with determining what factors keep
Indian students from achieving academic success, several members argued
that the report should not focus exclusively on the negative aspects of
their schooling.

"We need to very carefully balance the problems with the successes
and with the movement toward those successes," Mr. Demmert said.

Members agreed that, because of the diversity that exists in the
Native American community, recommendations should avoid narrow
specifics. They also agreed, however, that strategies beyond those
offered in current school-restructuring plans will be needed to meet
the complex set of factors in play in the wide mix of educational
settings serving Indian students.

Funding Challenged

Even before the task force could begin its deliberations,
disagreements flared over funding.

Jo Jo Hunt, executive director of the National Advisory Council on
Indian Education, challenged the Education Department's decision to
transfer $250,000 from the salaries and expenses account of the office
of Indian education to fund the task force.

She argued that the money, which was originally slated for staff
positions that have been left vacant, could have been better used to
support education directly in the form of grants to Indian
programs.

Alan Ginsburg, the task force's executive director, said in an
interview that the department's budget office upheld the decision to
use the funds on the task force's work. He said money for salaries
could not have been reprogrammed for grants.

Mr. Ginsburg also said that $150,000 from the department's Chapter 1
budget and as much as $50,000 in drug-education money would be used to
fund the task force.

Money also may be transferred from bilingual education and other
areas if the task force determines that it needs to examine those
issues in the context of Indian education, he added.

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